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Bones of the Earth
by Michael Swanwick
Eos, February, 2002
Hardcover, 352 pages
ISBN: 0380978369
Ordering information:
Amazon.com

Paleontologist Richard Leyster has achieved his life's dream:
to work at the Smithsonian, studying dinosaurs. He has just
made a once in a lifetime fossil find that he knows he can
study for the rest of his career, when a mysterious stranger
named Griffin walks into his office with an ice cooler and
an exceedingly odd job offer. Leyster tells Griffin to get
lost, but eventually succumbs to curiosity and looks inside the cooler.
Inside is a just-killed stegosaurus head. Leyster eventually
hooks back up with Griffin, and becomes privy to the
greatest secret on the planet: a mysterious species has given
humans the gift of time travel and the government is
sending scientists back in time to study evolution.
Leyster puts up with all the secrecy and multitude of
government red tape and rules just to have the chance
to see dinosaurs in their natural habitat. Although
Leyster enjoys his work immensely, several things
about the time travel job just don't add up. And when his colleague
and sometime lover
Dr. Gertrude Salley starts mucking about with things, some
very disturbing temporal paradoxes take place,
leaving Leyster with more than one possible future:
and some of these futures are very unpleasant, indeed.
Michael Swanwick has given us a dinosaur tale
that is both compelling and thought-provoking.
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and
Theodore Sturgeon Awards, Michael Swanwick
writes stories which intrigue and provoke.
Swanwick takes such timely issues as
creationism, evolution and the environment and
wraps them in a tightly-constructed thriller.
Dr. Leyster, the outspoken and reckless
Dr. Gertrude Salley, and the many versions of the
mysterious Griffin are all well-drawn and interesting
characters which make for very entertaining
reading.
A Kiss of Shadows
by Laurell K. Hamilton
Ballantine, March, 2002
Paperback, 468 pages
ISBN: 0345423402
Ordering information:
Amazon.com

Perennial bestseller Hamilton could have rested
on her laurels with her well-received Anita Blake
vampire hunter series, but instead she's created
another fantastic world that her readers are sure to love.
Merry Gentry is an actual faerie princess
of the Unseelie
Court, which is a dark and violent place. On the run
from her homicidal Aunt Andais, Queen of Air of Darkness,
Merry, aka Meredith NicEssus, lives in L.A. and makes a
living working as a
private detective for the Grey Detective Agency. The Agency
specializes in supernatural problems, and the team's latest case
is no exception. Someone is using illegal magic to seduce and
murder fey women and steal their power. When Merry's cover
is blown, she is forced to go back to the Unseelie Court to see
her Aunt Andais. But Andais has a better torture planned for Merry
than just some whips and chains. She's going to make her the
heir to the throne -- as long as she can stay alive and produce an heir
(notoriously difficult for faerie women).
Now out in paperback,
A Kiss of Shadows is the first entry
in what is turning out to be Hamilton's second bestselling
series. Merry Gentry is smart, sexy and is at her best
when her back is to the wall. She is surrounded by
powerful, handsome men and their mutual attraction leads
to quite a bit of sexual escapades. Laurell Hamilton's
takes the urban fantasy genre and gives it new life
with this thrilling and erotic series.
Fantasy/SF Book Reviews
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